In article ,
"Vortex3" writes:
Any Henry vacuum cleaner geeks out there?

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Today Henry # 1 stopped working. It was running very hot and under load and
I assume some kind of thermal cut out "cut out". Went back 30 minutes
later and it worked fine.

When investigating I found that even on "no load" (ie the motor assembly
completely removed from bag and filter) the exhaust air was still
surprisingly warm.

So I made a comparison with our other very much newer Henry (lets call him
Henry # 2). On this one the exhaust is not so noticeably warm under the
same circumstances.

So I investigated further.

Henry # 1 (old) states 850W motor and draws 4.45 Amps at idle.

Henry # 2 (new) states 1000W motor and draws 3.95 Amps at idle.

Methinks there's something wrong with Henry # 1....which seems to be
converting about an Amp of supply current straight into heat!!!!

++++++++++++

Q1. Are these symptoms consistent with a simple-to-fix fault? (ie change
the motor or similar)

Q2. If so is the motor easy to change (I assume so as spares are readily
available).

....or should I just go to Homebase and buy a new one (currently on offer at
£85) and keep the old for parts

Any opinions appreciated.

I'm not intimately familiar with Henrys (have used a couple which
weren't mine and found them rather useless), but I assume it has a
universal motor (i.e. with commutator and brushes).

These are rather inefficient and rely on a good airflow to remove
the heat. If airflow is restricted (blocked filter, or coupled up to
something which doesn't allow enough airflow), the motor can overheat
and be permanently damaged in a way which generates more heat (don't
assume a thermal cutout will do so before damage is done). Common
damage is a shorted winding (most commonly on the armature, but can
be a field winding), or a bearing which has gone stiff.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]